March 23, 2009 - Canada's 2009 seal hunt has now been officially opened by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. The quota for the hunt had been set at 338,200 seals - an increase of 55,000 from last year's quota. The 2009 quota includes 280,000 harp seals, 50,000 grey seals and 8,200 hooded seals. In 2007 harp seals had to contend with a disastrous ice break up which resulted in up to a 90% pup mortality rate. The Humane Society of Canada does not believe that these excessively high quota levels are based on valid population estimates; and we are concerned that effects that climate change will have on these seal populations is not being properly taken into account when these quotas are being set. While last year resulted in thick sea ice, in 2007, 2006 and 2002 the pack ice melted before the baby seals had a chance to learn to swim and molt into their grey and black fur which would have insulated them from the cold of the sea. Between 75 to 90% of the seal pups died in each of these years.

To protest the largest taxpayer subsidized slaughter of marine mammals in the world, please send a letter to the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper at:

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Current thick ice conditions at the start of the 2008 hunt hampered the sealers; one disabled sealing ship being towed by the Coast Guard sank killing four of the men aboard in the Gulf of St Laurence. Three other ships were lost off the coast of Newfoundland in mid April, one sank, another burned to the water line, and the third ran aground. An additional dozen more ships required some assistance from the Coast Guard.

In 2008 The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) delayed the issuing of permits for observers and journalists to view the hunt.

On October 19th, 2006, Germany's parliament voted unanimously on a motion to ban the import of seal products, eliminating the German market from the commercial seal trade - read about it here. Belgium's Parliament voted for a national ban on the import of all seal products, the first European country to do so. Since then bans have been introduced in the Netherlands, Croatia and Slovenia, with other countries looking to follow suit.

The European Parliament has made a written declaration which has been sent to the European Commission to draft a ban for subsequent vote by the EU Parliament

A Declaration to Ban Seal Products in the European Union was submitted by the Green Party on Sept 15, 2006

The Humane Society of Canada supports the European Parliament's Declaration to ban the import of seal products - read about it here

The Humane Society of Canada called on the Harper Government to create an intergovermental taskforce to establish and maintain a fund to buy back sealing licences and launch new initiaties to promote ecotourism and other sources of income. To this end we donated $10,000 to help create this program - this is the response that we received from the Prime Minister, and this is the response that we received from the Department of Fisheries & Oceans

Read our initial letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper calling on his government to institute this "Made in Canada" solution to end to the largest taxpayer subsidized slaughter of marine mammals on the planet, and the cheque that we sent to start the licence buyback program